Asteroids and meteorites reveal family resemblance

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An image of asteroid Itokawa taken by the Asteroid Multiband Imaging Camera (AMICA) onboard the Hayabusa spacecraft. A footprint observed by the Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS) also onboard the spacecraft and its track are shown. The NIRS measureme ...
An image of asteroid Itokawa taken by the Asteroid Multiband Imaging Camera (AMICA) onboard the Hayabusa spacecraft. A footprint observed by the Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS) also onboard the spacecraft and its track are shown. The NIRS measurement covers a dark area in an edge of Sagamihara and a bright area west of Tsukuba. Credit: Multiband Imaging Camera (AMICA)

Asteroids and meteorites are supposed to be made of the same stuff – at least that's what earth science teachers have been telling their students for decades. But until re-cently, the data didn't quite fit the story. When researchers compared the near-infrared reflectance of asteroids (as measured from Earth) and meteorites (collected on Earth) they found enough differences to raise doubts about whether the asteroids really could be the source of Earth's meteorites.


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